Breastfeeding Outcomes Among Early-term And Term Infants In Hong Kong

Abstract

Background: Early-term birth is a birth occurring between 37 and 39 weeks’ gestation and is associated with poorer neonatal outcomes when compared with term birth. Breastfeeding could provide numerous benefits to infants and could potentially offset the adverse neonatal effects of early-term birth. However, little is known about the effect of early-term birth on any and exclusive breastfeeding duration. Objectives: The objective of the study was to compare the breastfeeding duration and exclusivity among early-term and term infants. Methods: A total of 2560 healthy mother-infant dyads were recruited from four geographically distributed hospitals in Hong Kong in 2006-2007 and 2011-2012. Participants were followed up prospectively for 12 months or until they stopped breastfeeding. Infants were classified as early-term (37-<39 weeks) and term (39-<42 weeks). We used logistic regression to assess the effect of early-term birth on breastfeeding continuation at one-month postpartum and cox proportional hazard models to examine the risk of any and exclusive breastfeeding cessation. Results: Approximately one-third (32.8%) of the participants were classified as early-term. There were no significant differences in the odds of any (odds ratio [OR]=1.05; 95% 0.85, 1.31) or exclusive (OR=0.89; 95% 0.73, 1.08) breastfeeding continuation at one-month postpartum. More than one-half of all participants had stopped breastfeeding by three months postpartum and approximately one-half of the infants were not being exclusively breastfed by two weeks postpartum. There were no significant differences in the duration of any (hazard ratio [HR]=1.0; 95% 0.91, 1.09) or exclusive (HR=1.0; 95% 0.91, 1.10) breastfeeding between early-term and term infants. Conclusion: There was no association between early-term birth and breastfeeding duration and exclusivity in this cohort. This suggests that, in the absence of postnatal complications, early-term birth itself may not lead to a shorter duration of any or exclusive breastfeeding.